OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Hey,

maybe someone here can help.
As you may know im from Germany. Ive been a popular CCG (collectible-card-game) and sometimes i go and buy cards from america, since even though it costs more shipping its still cheaper than buying here. There is a large community over at www.magictrader.com where ppl can and buy stuff, similar to Ebay.
I just recently made a deal there. The Seller had 61 positive feedbacks, and only after i transfered money i noticed all those ratings are from 2000/2001.
Anyways, i transfered 45 US $ to his paypal account about 3 weeks ago. Shipping cards does usually take 3 days from USA to Germany.
Now, my latest emails regarding the cards shipping have been ignored. To make it worse, that community has a "Bad Trader" Board, and just a day ago someone posted that the guy "British Kavu" has been ripping him by 145 Can $. Ppl are recognized using their mail address, and that British Kavu is definitly the guy i have been dealing with as well.
Just today i initated a paypal-dispute.

Any ideas on what to do ? I dont want to let go of 45 $ for nothing.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Luckily you used paypal, so they have arbiters to help you. Too bad it wasn't on Ebay as well, they have a lot of legal backup. Looks like you'll just have to see what paypal says for now.

Good luck!
TT

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Or paid with a credit card as they allow you to dispute a transaction.

The world is full of *******s. Well, not FULL of *******s but there are more than we need and a bigger percentage of the population are *******s these days.

Sorry for your problems.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

How about i offer 20 $ to each of you who will hire some brutes, send them right to his adress (which i have) and beat the **** out of him ? Would that not be a fair "reply" ?

dang i cant believe i have lost 45 $ within merely seconds.
People are evil.

edit: PayPal allows disputes as well, and i already have started one. Unfortunally though, for non-ebay transactions they will demand 25 $ fees. Additionally, the ripper needs to have money on his account.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

If you paid PayPal with a CC, most CC's have some kind of fraud protection. Time to dig out the fine print and see if it covers auctions. I know mine covers quite a few fraudulent activities and at no fee or deductible.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Notify Paypal of the problem in writing, then have the credit card carrier stop payment.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

I'd do it myself...except I'm probably a few thousand miles away from the piece of ****.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Sad to hear that. Hope you get your money back.

I'd also call the police.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Chances are the guy isn't even in the US. He just has a PayPal account with a bogus US address.

More and more people are being ripped off by sellers on EBAY and other sites. It has become an epidemic. This is why I stopped using Ebay. Got tired of paying for things that never came, or if they came, were in such poor condition that they were junk. Good luck to you Rag.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

My neighbor used to sell merchandise on Ebay until he got ripped off on about $150 dollars in stuff from a buyer. The person filed a claim with paypal stating the items were broken and demanded a refund. Paypal had the person ship it back and my neighbor refund the money. However, all the person did was print out a shipping label and slap it on an empty envelope and mailed it to him. Paypal automatically refunded the money to the buyer and there was nothing he could do.

Call your credit card company and inform them of what happened and have a charge-back preformed. 99% of the time, the credit company will agree with you simply to keep you as a customer. Paypal works much the same way in these matters.


Paypal takes about a month to get their butts in motion, unlike a credit-card company which will act almost immediately.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

PayPal is natorius for doing bad things.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

I understand paypal's point of view in the matter. They have to bend over and do everything the credit card companies and banks say or else. Imagine what would happen to paypal is Visa/Mastercard decided to do business with them.


However, more often than naught, Paypal doesn't gather all the facts or verify the truth.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

You got tricked by a thief, sadly, but in what Paypal is concerned ? They offer a payment service, not guarantee that your seller is honest...

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

When I paid on PP last night, I could have checked some sort of "insurance" protection thingie. I guess they make you pay for being able to dispute the transaction or someting. I dunno.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

The insurance is most likely related to shipping, If you get scammed on paypal, they are pretty good about righting the wrong money wise.

sellers being honest is paramount to paypal being in business, however. If too many people get screwed over by dishonest sellers (buyers too in some cases) then public trust is lost. An old adage in sales is "Please a customer and they'll tell four people, Upset a costumer and they'll tell 20 people."

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

I'll have some good ol' boys talk to this guy if you can get me one of those original German black-border Counterspells. You like the new set, Ragnarok?

I also tend to not do business with sellers that don't have at least a couple months' worth of relatively recent positive feedback. I've had hundreds of transactions, and I've only been completely ripped off once. It happened to be worth less than the $25 fee, so nothing I can do about it, but it was a case like yours where all the positive feedback was old and they went on a crime spree, ripping off plenty of people.

Re: OT: Buying oversea - ripped
 

Heh, thats interesting, Morkilus. As mentioned, he had 79 references, but only after i send payment i noticed those were from 2000/2001, so the account was probably hacked.
Shame, i had 4 transactions using motl, and the 5th one is already a failure. Must be bad luck coupled with my dumbness.

Ravnica block is awesome. The best one since Invasion http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

German FBB Counterspells ? No problem :p
The guy is from Ontario, i even have his name/adress :p